


Know Your Enemy's Face

by MirrorDragon



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: And i love to watch him suffer, F/M, Tiso is a special kind of dumbass whom we all love, because she cant understand the difference between flirting and being an asshole, but tiso deserves it because hes a moron, descriptions of gore but not any injury just already dead things, first half is tiso being a moron, second half is god tamer being a prick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 18:10:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorDragon/pseuds/MirrorDragon
Summary: Deepnest has a habit of playing tricks upon the mind, and those unprepared for its dangers tend to disappear into the darkness, never to be found again. Of course, Tiso isn't one to heed warnings, and he definitely isn't one to pay attention when things seem over his head.
Relationships: God Tamer & Tiso (Hollow Knight), God Tamer/Tiso (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 119





	Know Your Enemy's Face

**Author's Note:**

> This work is based of this image! ([Link](https://twitter.com/HK_wjan/status/1046303492682407936)) It gave me so much inspiration I accidentally wrote 7 thousand words again, but I loved every minute.

Claws skittering fast across the cavern ceiling was Tiso’s only warning before the corpse creeper let out a piercing hiss, launching itself at him like a dark shadow. The grey spines along its back extended, infection dripping from its maw.

He was more than ready for it however, his shield thoroughly soaked in orange, edges scuffed and lined with gouges and venom stains.

The creature dropped from above, and as it did, he lifted his shield and parried it. It landed with such weight that the handle bashed against his head, and its claws scraped across the metal, unnervingly close to his face. He braced himself. In one harsh sweep of his arm, the corpse creeper was sent colliding into the jagged stone walls.

Tiso gave it no time to fall, shield held tight to his side as he charged and crushed it with the full weight of his body. And as it died with a sickening crunch, shell splintering into itself and body crumbling to the ground, it was with zero hesitation that he raised his weapon up high and sliced its head clean off with a single cut.

Dust surrounded him, the brief scuffle disturbing the eerie stillness of the caverns.

Cobwebs and twisted roots hung precariously from the dirty grey stone. They shook and swung from threads as Tiso brought his shield down again, and again.

He had been in these miserable caverns long enough to learn how to properly dispose of the undead. No matter how determined they seemed to persist. If they weren’t chopped into pieces, he ran the risk of getting ambushed while his back was turned. And wouldn’t that be a foolish way to die?

Even as he yanked his shield from the dirt, strings of orange clinging to the surface, every thin spine along his arms stuck on end, and his nerves prickled. Infection oozed from the fractures in the beast’s carapace like syrup from broken glass. He grimaced in disgust, teeth bared as the smell rose.

Deepnest was no forgiving place. It was undoubtedly as treacherous, if not far more so, than the Colosseum of Fools. At least in the arena, he had the privilege of viewing more than four feet in front of him.

The rhythm of the drums signalled the next attack, fools pouring from their cages reliably on time, to the point where he could memorise the patterns. Here, dirtcarvers ruptured from the ground, in packs of twenty or more, immediately snapping at his feet. Vicious creatures burst from the cracks in the walls, dove from above, crept silently towards him until he could taste their sweet, sickening breaths. Often all at one time.

The blades of his shield snapped out and in as Tiso fidgeted with the underside, flicking bits of flesh away. The cobwebs were starting to stick to the meat chunks, clogging up the mechanism. He scowled, shivering with a harsh breath until his plating rattled. Steam bloomed from his mouth into the frigid air. There was no time to clean it now, unless he fancied getting ambushed and made into weaver food in his distraction. He would have to leave the blades shut for the moment, before they locked on him in the middle of a dire fight.

Rolling his shoulders back with an audible crack, Tiso stepped over the corpse’s remains and continued onward into the narrow caverns, mumbling bitter things under his breath as his feet crunched over old discarded shells. His eyes darted back and forth as he turned each corner, fingers twitching around the handle of his shield, becoming more hopelessly lost with every step.

Everything looked the same. Maybe he was walking in circles, he couldn’t tell. More stalactites, more broken structures, more rotting bodies. And it only seemed to be getting colder.

His shell hunched over, hackles raised. A stalactite grazed cross his hood and he nearly smashed the structure to pieces with a violent swipe of his shield.

Still, not once did Tiso think to turn around. If he had actually accepted the map from that decrepit cartographer, he wouldn’t have cared to use it anyway.

Warriors never needed a map. He had never required one before and he certainly wasn’t going to stoop so low as to use one now. Tiso wasn’t like those common bugs, relying on others to survive. He was better. Smarter. He could easily find his way out, using only his keen warrior instincts.

Admittedly, those instincts were a bit unhelpful at the moment. Focusing on telling him to run and hide, that this was a terrible idea and that he really should have listened to all those other bugs, and their bothersome warnings. T_his was stupid, he was going to die, his body would never be found again_.

Of course, he ignored this, and resolved to head even deeper.

If those fools thought some itty little spiderlings were going to be the end of _him_, they had another thing coming. His eyes rolled as he scoffed to himself.

One second of lapsed concentration had him nearly tumbling headfirst into another goddamn pit of spikes, their sharp points gleaming, and he only succeeded in leaping to the other side with blind reflex, pebbles crumbling at his toes.

He cursed.

When he turned back, the pitfall was completely concealed under darkness. Pausing for a moment, his lip curled, and he carried on forwards.

He tread a little more carefully, slower steps and fingertips tracing along the walls. The rocks were slimy as guts in some areas, and Tiso couldn’t hold back the shudder as his claws glided along it.

There were no lumaflies. Depressingly few luminescent mushrooms. The only real light source was the radiant glow of the husks’ eyes. And he never allowed them to stay lit for long.

Four orange pinpricks lit up in the distance. Staring at him. He lifted his shield protectively in front, but in that time, the glow had already vanished.

He couldn’t let his guard down for one moment. The ground shook with the movement of garpedes, the sound of their endless burrowing weighing upon his mind like the walls were closing in, loose rocks trembling across the ground.

It was as if every single creature residing within the caverns had taken it upon themselves to screech and scuttle and hiss and chitter, just to spite him. Just so he knew he was surrounded, and they were coming for him.

Good, Tiso thought. Exactly the point. This hellscape that the Gods abandoned was the perfect place for warriors such as him to train. The only place that could hold a real challenge against his skill.

The bugs and beasts came at him with no mercy, no holding back, claws and fangs and venom. He was ready to take them all down. Slaughter until there were no more to kill.

He would find his way out eventually. He just… didn’t feel like it yet.

The shriek of some distant creature reverberated around him, echoing like it was inside the very walls, and he clutched his shield tighter to his chest. Both hands laying across the handle. The cold of the metal did nothing to warm him from the icy air.

Hours could have passed, he wouldn’t have been able to tell. It was even harder to guess down here than it was in Kingdom’s Edge; the darkness suffocating. Caught in an endless cycle of walking, fighting, tripping over pitfalls.

Creatures crawled from the most hidden of spots, deeplings emerging from impossibly small crevices to spit infection at him before scurrying off with a hiss. He had sliced through enough to litter the cavern with bodies, orange sticking to his feet as he walked, his shield weighing at his arms, and yet there was seemingly no end to the tunnels.

By the time Tiso found a reasonably safe spot to take a breather –a small, open sided tent arranged by a long dead traveller–, he was ravenously hungry, exhausted in practically every muscle, and didn’t have the slightest clue of which way he had come from. Irritatingly, even if he _had_ come across anything remotely edible, it would have been too dark to spot anyway. And every creature he’d slaughtered so far had been far too infected to consider eating.

He slumped down at the wall, flicking at rubble.

Perhaps this was a bad idea. Wasn’t Deepnest at the very bottom of the kingdom? Were there any exits this far down?

“…Stupid.” He bit out, glowering at the ripped fabric. Voice kept low to avoid alerting the nearby husks. With any luck, he might be able to take a quick rest here without having his throat torn out. It was unlikely, but his survival chances without a break would be just as low.

He wasn’t scared. His heart was pounding from the adrenaline, that was all. Not from fear.

The endless howling and thundering was too loud to give him respite, keeping his nerves on edge. His arms twitched. A rock tumbled and clattered against metal spikes somewhere in the distance, and Tiso jerked his head.

And that was when he saw her.

His breath caught, chest lighting up with overwhelming relief.

God Tamer stood on a rocky outcrop, a fair distance away from him. Higher than the platform he was currently residing and shrouded in blackness.

There was a deep canyon between the two of them that separated her from the rest of the tunnel, far too dark to see to the bottom, as if the ground had been torn apart. If Tiso had learnt anything about this place, it was likely a fatal drop. Still, he stood almost immediately, tripping over his own shield in the process as he rushed to the edge.

The scarlet of her helmet was the brightest colour Tiso had seen in hours. and he called out as loud as he could, hands cupped to his mouth.

“God Tamer! Are you lost too?” He backtracked instantly. “I mean, I’m not lost. I know exactly where I am.”

She didn’t respond, antennae barely twitching. But she did turn to look at him, and a wash of heat crept up his face.

Tiso couldn’t deny that he was overjoyed to see her. Perhaps it was the isolation, or the dark and cramped conditions, or the persistent anxiety clawing at his gut. Maybe it was the teensy tiny little fact that he liked her, it didn’t particularly matter. Nonetheless, the sight of her was like a beacon: a ray of light in the endless dark.

He shouted again. “It’s good to see you anyhow!”

It was strange, she did appear a little different. Lacking her sharp armour and familiar greatnail, she instead wore a ragged brown cloak, covering her arms and trailing nearly all the way down to the ground. The tears and gashes were apparent even from where Tiso was standing.

He creased one brow. It did not flatter her at all, he had to admit. She may still have donned her helmet –the shine significantly dulled. Which was odd, because she always kept the metal gleaming–, but without her armour, it just wasn’t as intimidating. It didn’t suit her one bit.

Not only that, but she gave off scarcely any of the fierce, frightening energy that he was so used to. She felt almost… approachable. How long had she been down here? She must have spent even longer in these caverns than_ he_ had if she looked so dishevelled. So… _off_.

Despite himself, Tiso’s mind started to spin off in horribly self-indulgent directions. Perhaps, if she was lost down here with him, alone and tired, then he could lead her back to safety. The path back up would be cleared of beasts, thanks to his efforts, he could protect her from the surviving whelps that dared cross him. Then maybe, just maybe, she’d stop ridiculing him every time they met. She’d finally see how strong and cool he really was.

A daft smile crept up his face.

Without giving him a second glance, God Tamer turned her back to him and ran back through another tunnel, disappearing into the shadows.

His stomach dropped, then twisted. He blinked.

What was she doing? How could she just leave him down here like that? Why didn’t she say anything? _She didn’t even insult him._

Before he had a chance to think about what he was doing, Tiso took a few steps back and took a running jump at the rift in the ground.

Time slowed down. He was sailing above nothingness. 

It was halfway across that his brain caught up, choking on a breath and realising that he wasn’t going to make it. His limbs flailed.

He collided with the stone. The crash echoing throughout the whole cavern. His fingertips caught onto a stray outcropping of rock, feet scrambling desperately at the wall.

His chest tightened, cold washing over him.

The dry rock crumbled in his claws like sand, and his feet slipped for a moment. He snarled through his teeth with the effort as he gripped onto the closest available handhold, begging it not to break, pulling himself up bit by bit. With his shield still strapped awkwardly to one arm, the metal got in the way of every movement, chipping bits of stone onto Tiso’s face.

He managed to reach the top, roughly scraping his shell along the surface, and once he fully clawed his way onto the stone, he rolled onto his back with a gasp.

Exceptional skill.

He was really glad she hadn’t seen that.

He looked to his side and winced. God Tamer hadn’t travelled far, only to the other end of the cavern, and it struck Tiso that she had waited for him.

_Oh_. She wasn’t leaving him to die. That made him embarrassingly more thrilled than he should be.

Weavers chittered somewhere behind him, likely investigating the sounds of yelling, and Tiso glanced back at them as he rose. There were quite a few, at least ten, pacing back and forth and frothing with infected drool. Perhaps it was favourable he jumped when he did.

Huffing, he brushed the dirt off his shell. How many times had he survived with sheer dumb luck? He could count at least five so far since he had snuck through the passageway in Greenpath. He really had to start thinking before…

He had to start thinking in general.

Although God Tamer seemed to have witnessed all of that _phenomenal display of skill_, she did not move, cloak barely shifting.

Tiso sneered. It wasn’t difficult to guess the face she was pulling at him under that helmet.

He took one irritable step towards her, brows furrowed and mouth tilted awkwardly to the side, but she took off again down another passageway to the right, and he couldn’t help but sprint after her, barely taking the time to shout.

He couldn’t lose her now. He might never see her again at this rate.

She darted past clear openings and jumped down odd cracks, following a route she obviously knew too well, and Tiso had to wonder how long she really had spent down here. Bedraggled as God Tamer looked, it was obvious that she had found quite a number of secret passageways and hidden entrances, and had made herself fully familiar of every single crack and crevice. Even Tiso had to admit, he would never have noticed such areas. Some of them were totally camouflaged behind spider webs and rock falls, and some were just plain invisible.

The webs became more frequent, as did the corpses, but the two of them were getting deeper after all. It was only expected that the most fearsome beasts would keep to the darkest of shadows, preying on the lost. He supposed God Tamer was no exception. She had likely headed as far down as she could the moment she got here, going after the strongest prey. Tiso glowered. If only he had gotten there sooner, she would have seen him at his deadly best.

They ran through enough caverns for Tiso to completely lose his sense of direction, often finding himself totally blind in the dark and having to guess which path the champion had taken once he reached a crossroads.

He ran faster, confusion rearing in his mind. Where in Wyrm’s name was she taking him?

Initially, he had assumed she’d found an exit, but now he wasn’t so sure. This was too far down, there was nothing this way but the unknown threat of old and angry gods. So, knowing her, there was only one other option.

Somewhere down here, she had found a suitable arena, or at least somewhere spacious, and she was dragging him there to spar. Then, as per the last time, and the time before that, she would laugh as he hauled his bruised body all the way back up to the surface.

Bitterly, Tiso hoped for a fight; this time, she would be the one crawling back.

He paused for breath. She had gone _again_.

Damn it, she was getting too far ahead. The moment he would enter one tunnel, she would vanish behind another. The only glimpse of her was the flash of red.

He looked up. From the end of the tunnel, she stepped back into his vision, movements stiff. So far, she had always reappeared to lead him back if he wandered too astray, and it never failed to put a grin on his face.

Though she refused to speak as she waited for him, Tiso could feel her impatience, so he did his best to pick up the pace, jogging towards her. It wouldn’t be wise to annoy her down here, where she clearly held the advantage. Still, she would taste the metal of his shield soon enough.

As husks skittered around her, the champion didn’t flinch. And when they shot out between Tiso’s legs, he couldn’t find it in himself to be worried. The few bugs that passed by them were so scared off her that they flung themselves into corners. Cowering and chirping.

Typical of her, she had already gotten herself a reputation, making herself perfectly at home here in this terrifying nightmare of a region. She was practically feral.

_Heh. He should remember that quip for later._

“It’s lucky I found you.” He began, finally breaking the silence. “I have to admit, this place was becoming such a bore.”

Her head didn’t turn, but she didn’t tell him to shut up. That was a relatively good sign. He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t disappointed though.

He _tsked_ loudly, readjusting his hood. “The bugs here may have been a challenge to fight at first, but after so many battles, the same thing over and over, I’m dying for something new. You know what I’m talking about, right? You must get tired of the same old challengers all the time.”

Hopping down a crevice after her, he stumbled over a mutilated body that lay beside where his feet landed. Its face was trapped in a permanent scream of horror, its carapace ripped open with one long tear.

“I’m here training. I assume you are too?”

She leapt over a spike trap and carried on farther down. He struggled to catch up.

“I’ve basically cleared out the entire of Deepnest.” He bragged, as smug as he could sound for how out of breath he was.

She could at least slow down a little, there was no discernible reason to be in such a rush. Tiso bet she was doing it on purpose just so she could laugh at him later.

“The weavers should probably thank me.” He laughed loud, a harsh sound. “Well, that would be if they weren’t all so weak as to succumb to the infection themselves! I heard their queen was quite the warrior, but the weavers I came across? Bah! Too soft to even pose a threat!”

She ignored him. He frowned.

As Tiso entered yet another tunnel, a huge pile of corpses towered in front of him, tossed one by one on top of each other. The bodies were even worse than the one he found before, ripped to shreds, caked in dried haemolymph and infection, piled high enough to fill his entire vision. He couldn’t help but skid to a stop, looking up in surprise. Gods above… she had been busy.

God Tamer trampled over their shells like a bridge, her feet audibly crunching through a couple of them, and sending a few unsteady ones tumbling down the side like a landslide.

Tiso was only able to gape, standing stock still for a good few moments. How long… how long could she have possibly spent down here? How many bugs had attacked her?

Gathering his composure –He wasn’t alarmed. Just stunned–, Tiso attempted the climb, grabbing a protruding horn to heave himself up. The bodies shifted, slumped down and broke as he scrambled over them, claws dipping into infectious cysts.

It was vile, the smell was putrid. He held back vomit as his feet slipped in blood. Still, Tiso had certainly dealt with worse, hardly averse to such sights at this point of his life. A warrior like him had dealt a fair share of damage, and he was sure the death toll behind him was just as great as this. Only… perhaps not… all in one go.

As he slid down the other side, fragments of butchered shells dislodging and falling along with him, God Tamer waited for him. Her expression under the mask was totally unreadable.

His legs hit the floor, corpses clattering behind him, spilling around his feet. He puffed his chest out, hiding the grimace.

She still wanted him to follow, Gods knew why, and it was such a stupid thing for Tiso to get proud about, but he did anyway.

“I see you’ve already been taking care of some other husks, huh?” He jerked his head behind him to the gargantuan mountain of bodies, teeth bared in a grin. “Great minds think alike.”

There was a long moment of tension as she looked at him, unmoving, her gaze blanker than he had seen before. Tiso blinked, the air getting thicker and thicker.

She turned, slowly, before walking this time, down a narrow tunnel.

There were gouge marks, he noticed, littering the walls. And an arm. A bitten off arm, strings of muscle obviously torn off by sharp mandibles. He kicked at his as he trailed after her. Weird.

The tunnel grew smaller, significantly darker. It was uncomfortable enough to send a shiver down his spine.

“When we get back to the Colosseum,–” He spoke loudly, chin jutted out. “–I’ll be showing off my new skills in front of the crowds. The Fools will be dropping like flies, and I’ll get the loudest cheer than any of the warriors before me. Just you wait God Tamer.”

He waited hopefully for a response, but she gave him none. The atmosphere was getting harder to bear, and in an uncharacteristic move, Tiso actually shut up.

Was she annoyed? He really couldn’t tell. Maybe she was just not in the mood for this, too fatigued and focused on their path. He kicked a stone towards her, barely missing her shins as it pinged across the ground. His breath held for a second, expecting a _whap_ across the head, and yet to his great surprise, she didn’t notice.

Moments away from opening his mouth to ask if she was alright, there was an almost inaudible whispering sound above him, before a great wall snapped shut at his back. The boom of its landing reverberated through his carapace. He jumped, spinning around with his shield raised. Blood rushed in his ears, and almost hesitantly, he brought his free hand up to the blockage.

He made a face, eyes wide and chewing his lip.

It was silk. Admittedly, very thick silk, many interlaced grey and reddish strands, and solid enough that it didn’t give when he pushed it. Mildly sticky too, and he prized his fingers from it with a twisted expression.

He turned back to God Tamer, who was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel. He could barely even see her now, the only light was the faint orange glow behind him.

She gave no indication of worry, or… any emotion really. But Gods forbid he look nervous by something she didn’t care about –it had probably fallen from a weaver nest or something– so he ignored it.

His footsteps echoed across the broken shell shards, and he tightened his grip on the handle.

It was a little harder to ignore the rest of the falling doors, six in total. It was even more difficult to pretend he wasn’t flinching at every one as they slammed down, close enough to scuff him. He jogged faster.

By the time he reached the main cavern –He had been right, it was an arena–, Tiso practically jumped from the tunnel and looked back with a stupid sense of self-satisfaction that the last one hadn’t hit him on the way down.

And then he looked up. And his mind froze.

Corpses, wrapped up tightly in black silk and obviously drained of haemolymph, hung like macabre decorations from the ceiling. All manners of bugs, tiny deephunters and great stalking devouts, husks he could identify from far across the kingdom swung beside ones he clearly recognised from Deepnest. For a moment, Tiso thought he saw the corpse of that tiny pale thing he had met occasionally on the path towards Kingdom’s Edge, but the horns were different. Their kin perhaps?

“If this is your doing, then I am highly concerned.” He joked, scoffing at God Tamer with narrowed eyes. She faced away from him in the centre of the room, and Tiso noted that if he could get the aim _just_ right, he might be able to slice through a rope and drop a stalking devout on top of her.

He strutted towards her, a smirk covering up the excitement in his heart. Twisting one of the chains at his shield, the blades flared out and spun, before catching on a chunk of gore and stuttering to a stop. Damn it, he forgot about that. The blades snapped back in again, and he played it off as intentional.

“Besides that… what are we doing here? I’ll admit, you chose a good spot for a fight if you’re going to challenge me. Although, I don’t think the crowds are going to be quite as supportive.” He nodded his head up towards the dead husks, black fluid leaking from their empty eye sockets.

She turned back towards him, slowly, deliberately, and heat rushed up to his cheeks. Adrenalin racing through his shell. She was in for one hell of a fight, with or without a working weapon. She didn’t even have her sword! This was going to be a breeze.

Her neck snapped.

Tiso didn’t even begin to cover up his scream, choking out a panicked _“What the f–” _before stumbling backwards. His shield clattered to the ground as his fingers slipped.

Her body distorted and convulsed, shuddering and gurgling with unnatural, guttural moans. Ebony black spikes protruded from her spine with a wet tearing sound, splattering orange pus across the ground. It was like some sort of parasitic creature was rupturing from her shell. As her head lolled even farther on its broken socket, she screeched with such a horrific pitch that the hung bodies swung from their tethers, creaking.

Tiso’s legs didn’t move fast enough for his body, his upper half toppling back over himself as he scrabbled away. His heart was beating so fast that he couldn’t feel anything but a constant vibration in his chest, and ice clawed at his gut. His breath came in rapid gasps, and as terror seized at his veins, he realised with utter dismay that his shield was too far to reach.

God Tamer’s throat extended, bright light radiating from her core as it bubbled with glowing cysts. From her torso, long, razor sharp legs punctured out. The smell was so sickening it made Tiso want to gag.

Its back contorted, head jerking harshly down as the spines ripped further out. With a final eruption of infectious blood, the monster rose up on its hind legs, scraping across the ground like claws on a chalkboard. It screamed, rocks crumbled from the roof, and sprinted towards him.

*****

God Tamer stared.

The way she had come across him… What was the right word to describe it?

It was_ hysterical._

Tiso struggled furiously, glaring and spluttering, flushed bright and only getting redder the longer she kept her gaze on him. And God Tamer had to grasp every fragment of her self-restraint not to keel over in laughter, almost holding her breath to keep it suppressed.

The idiot was trussed up from head to toe in black silk, crisscrossed around his shell and keeping his arms securely tied at his back. Dangling upside down from the ceiling, his toes curled, claws flexed, scrabbling uselessly at the rope as he twisted back and forth. This only succeeded in making him swing.

Through the holes in her helmet, the champion looked him over, delighting in the way he hissed in a breath, growing still as the unease set in. The slower she moved her head, the more uncomfortable he looked, and it was brilliant to watch.

What she did notice, taking her time inspecting him, was so unexpectedly funny, she had to bite her tongue. While yes, admittedly he was coated in dirt –grey dust and splatterings of orange painted across his hood and shell–, there wasn’t a single, notable scratch on him. Not a crack, not a bruise, not even a hint of blood.

She turned away, looking over her shoulder. The monster lay at the far side, strewn out across the ground and twisted in a rigid, unnatural position, still oozing with vast quantities of infected gunk. It spewed from the hole in its abdomen like a popped blister, gushing around the metal of her greatnail and creating a thick, gooey pool below. Opaque and noxious, and it stunk enough to make her lip curl.

A chunk of rock fell from the roof as Tiso wriggled, and she heard him squeak, then cough to pretend he didn’t. She turned back, shaking her head, mouth pulled tight and shoulders trembling as she snickered. Tiso hadn’t stood a damn chance against that thing. 

Sweat was beginning to bead down his face as his jaw clenched, trying desperately to look anywhere but at her.

It was all too obvious what had happened.

He had been caught instantly. The monster didn’t give him the slightest opportunity to even put up a fight, and then without much fuss, it had tied him up to eat later.

It was neat webbing too, she noticed, brushing a finger over the threads. Perfectly arranged to keep him immobilized. He wouldn’t have been putting up too much of a struggle then. Either he had been held still while it wrapped him, or he had been knocked out.

Oh how humiliating that must be. She couldn’t wait to bring this up at every excuse.

“How did you even know I was here?” He finally snapped out, and God Tamer’s antennae tilted lazily to the side.

“I heard you scream.”

From quite a distance too, it had taken her a decent amount of time to find the right path. Despite that, the screeching had continued throughout, so really it hadn’t been that hard. He was by far the easiest prey she’d ever tracked.

Outrage clear on his face from her comment, Tiso snarled with teeth bared and eyes wide, squirming desperately as the silk held tight. The cold was making him shiver and it made his hood dislodge even further, and the champion could see his antennae twitching with agitation. Gods, this was too funny.

Reaching up with one hand, God Tamer flipped the front of her helmet up, the clink echoing across the quiet chamber. One look at her and Tiso threw his head back with an infuriated sound.

She was grinning so wide it made her eyes crinkle up, the scar across her the right one creasing at the edges, and Tiso let out another harsh yell, kicking his feet. A quiet snort escaped her, and then at the expression of pure indignity on his face, a full-on wheeze came out until she was clutching her stomach.

“Just let me down!”

She cackled, louder than necessary, and he only shouted back in response.

“Stop!”

_No?_ What a ridiculous fool he was, writhing and furious and yet so obviously embarrassed. What a mess he had gotten himself into. Her eyes flicked back to the creature behind them as she caught her breath.

“How could you possibly not figure out _that_–” She pointed, expressing as much disbelief as she could muster. “–wasn’t me? Did the dead bodies not give it away? Or the clothes? Or the fact that I wasn’t carrying my sword? Or the trap doors?”

Each word had the effect of making him look more and more nervous, and almost defeatedly, his entire body slumped, head lolling forward. And yet when he argued back, his voice hadn’t lost any of its bite, exasperated and exhausted and very, very cross.

He spat out each syllable like poison._ “Just get me down!”_

“Now why would I do that?” She asked, flashing him a villainous smile. “You look so cute like this Tiso, I might leave you here a bit longer.”

The red dusting his face turned to crimson, brows raising in startlement as God Tamer smugly raised her chin.

“God Tamer, I can’t feel my legs!”

Just to add insult to injury, she placed one hand on his chest, eyeing how he froze, before shoving him hard. The rope creaked as it swayed, and Tiso let out a sudden string of curses as the ground lurched below him, becoming even more lightheaded as he swung in an arc. He thrashed and wriggled as frantically as he could manage, and yet that only changed the angle so he was spinning in circles. God Tamer hummed with great satisfaction, enjoying the moment immensely as she pushed him again.

He was utterly powerless right now. Completely dependent on her help, and she could see from the look on his face as he spiralled, he knew. He knew she was never going to let him live this down.

Giving him one last push as he started to slow, purposely shoving his side so he twirled faster, God Tamer marched back over to the great corpse of the beast, Tiso’s frantic cries of “_Wait wait! Where are you going?”_ following her.

She gripped the hilt of her greatnail with both hands. The sharp edge was visible right the way through its belly, and had been driven a good few inches into the ground, so it took a harsh yank to rip it from the stone. It emerged with a repulsive squelch, dripping clods of orange guts along the length of it, and she swung it back down against one of the stiff, pointed legs. Infection went flying as the nail struck the monster, letting out a dull _clang _as the ground was covered in spray. That was as clean as it was probably going to get.

Shouldering the weapon with one fluid stroke, her eyes landed on its head. _Her_ head.

A poorly constructed mimic; the eye holes were wrong, the colour was different, and that cloak? She scoffed. Tiso really was an idiot.

A tempting thought crossed her mind, one that made her eyes narrow to a squint. Taking a shuffle run, God Tamer reeled back and booted the mask as hard as she could. It disattached with ease, the neck joints already fragile, and launched through the air with a whistle. She watched it go, antennae flicking, and when it struck a dead vessel, shattering its pale mask into splinters and sending them raining like confetti, her mouth split into a wide grin.

Tiso was still shouting when she meandered back over to him, still swinging, and she let her shoulders drop with an amused breath out. “You didn’t even put a scratch on that thing!”

“It took me by surprise!” He protested. “I didn’t think a creature such as that even existe– GAH!”

Without giving him a second to react, God Tamer sliced her blade across the rope suspending him and let him drop head first to the ground with a heavy _thump_. He rolled like a sack of potatoes, tumbling to her feet with a groan, and once her greatnail had been resheathed, her hands dug under his knees and shell, lifting him up to her chest.

Words failed him, stuttering and frozen in her grip as red crept down his neck. She readjusted him in her arms with a quick toss, feeling him flinch and tense up. His mouth was open and visibly ready to let lose a cascade of insults, but she looked down at him with a smirk on her face and all he could do was flap.

It was with one final look back to the suspended corpses, blinking slowly with light bemusement, that God Tamer straightened up and headed back to the tunnel, carrying a struggling Tiso along with her.

“What were you doing here anyway?” She asked, ducking as the cavern roof skimmed her antennae. Tiso’s legs were kicking in an attempt to loosen the rope, feet no longer bound so tightly together, but the champions grip was unrelenting, and his heart was pounding from the feel of her so close.

Or was that because he was the right way up now?

To be fair, the blood finally rushing away from his face was making him severely dizzy, and his vision was beginning to blur, flicking in and out. Was he going to pass out? He hoped not, that would be humiliating beyond belief.

“Training, obviously.” He thrashed again, head spinning. “And you?”

Her hand slid further under his knees, holding him closer and blinking through the darkness as she marched onwards. The remaining shreds of the trapdoors trailed from the ceiling, sliced crossways and ripped apart by her greatnail.

“I’d heard of a creature called Nosk that lived in these caverns,” She said. “that preyed on bugs by copying their memories.”

Memories of loved ones usually, she thought. A brief smile crept up her face. Perhaps she wouldn’t bring that part up.

She shrugged. “Sounded interesting. I wanted to see it for myself, maybe have a go at taming it. Thanks for ruining that for me by the way.” Arms jerking down, she pretended to drop him. His body jolted inwards, legs flailing and choking on a gasp despite the fact he only fell a few inches. As she laughed, a low, rough cackling sound, he curled up further and sulked.

The tunnel widened back out to the mountain of bodies, and God Tamer halted in front of it, tilting her head. Somehow, she had to drag them the both of them up there. She could leave him, but… _Ugh_, all that effort would have been for nothing.

Regaining some composure, face still hot enough to glow, Tiso sneered. “You’d want a repulsive creature like that for a pet? I should have guessed.”

The look she gave him shut him up pretty quickly, and then as that look turned more wicked, eyes narrowing with a sly grin, he shrunk down into her hold. Feeling his breath catch, the champion twisted before flinging him over a shoulder, gripping him with one arm as his head swung back down. Tiso yelped, stomach turning, legs kicking, and God Tamer shook him firmly.

“Stop moving, or I’ll throw you across.”

He headbutted her spine, growling. “You wouldn’t.”

“You’ve seen me toss heavier bugs much farther than this. You know I can, and I will.”

He did know. And her tone of voice did not indicate an empty threat. Reluctantly, he stilled.

Using her free claw, God Tamer reached out for a handhold, beginning the trek upwards as her feet dug into broken masks.

Keeping balanced was Tiso’s main priority at that moment, lacking support from his arms to keep upright, face smushed into her armour, so the only complains he was really able to voice were vague worried gasps and snarls when God Tamer slipped.

They managed to reach the other side relatively smoothly, and the moment the champion’s feet landed on solid ground, she yanked Tiso back into both arms, striding forwards into the lighter caverns. It took him a few uncomfortable moments to regain his bearings, vision swimming as the blood flow flipped direction _again_.

He shook his head clear, and glared daggers at her. “Let me walk on my own!”

Maybe it would have been slightly threatening if his voice hadn’t cracked halfway through, and giving him an exaggerated, pretend hum of thought, God Tamer tilted her head, looking up as she creased her brow, and finally decided upon, “Nah.”

The look of betrayal on his face was enough to fuel her as she continued walking, grinning devilishly and finding enormous joy in the way he died inside.

These caverns were still foreign to her –she had sprinted most of the way here–, and she didn’t quite know whereabouts in Deepnest they had ended up. But, like any sensible warrior, she did bring a map, tucked into the scabbard at her back. And a sandwich. She was keeping _that_ information to herself though.

Tiso made it apparent he was going to complain most of the way back, as always, still failing to get any of the webbing off, but God Tamer couldn't help but find it endlessly entertaining. He really was such fun company; he could hold an argument like no one else, almost as well as he could fight, and Tiso was the only bug she knew who could successfully do both at the same time.

As they climbed further and further up, the path became quieter, almost peaceful. Expecting ambushes, she was pleasantly surprised to find the sliced remains of weavers littering the passageways, barely having to touch her sword as they progressed.

The champion had to admit, if Tiso hadn’t cut his way through all those husks on his way down, this would have been so much more of a hassle. Feeling slightly generous, she told him as such.

Almost immediately she regretted it, but… He _had_ almost been eaten. She could give him this one, just this once.

In spite of his best efforts, Tiso couldn’t help the flush creeping back up his face, mouth turning up in a proud grin as he muttered some sort of self-important nonsense.

And even though there was a part of her that really wanted to drop him, leave him on the ground and saunter off through the passageway, just to hear him yell, the way he looked back up at her. Dusted pink and eyes crinkled up with his stupid, typical, egotistical, smug expression.

She felt her face heat up just a little too.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a pretty novice writer so I wanted to have a go at action this time. Think it went pretty well! And Tiso getting his ass kicked makes me thrive, so expect lots of this in the future.  
Please leave a comment, they make me happier than anything and really give me the confidence to make more!


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